Hello and Happy Friday to everyone!

TODAY – we had a meeting with Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Karen Budd-Falen.  Also attending our meeting was NPS Regional Director Bert Frost and Matthew from the Congressional Oversight office.

Karen Budd-Falen is currently directly under Secretary Burgum. 

The conversation was really good, and we felt that it was really productive. 

When we talked about the proposed legislation, it was our understanding that Bert Frost helped with this legislation.  Bert stated otherwise.  He said the NPS hasn’t made a decision on if they will be supporting the legislation or not.  We will redirect any questions we have about the legislation back to Senator Hoeven’s office.

Bert did share that the park is in the process of creating a Population Viability Analysis right now.  That report should be released later this year.  That report should give some framework for them to make decisions on genetic viability in the herd. 

He also shared that the park does feel that there are too many horses currently in the park.  We know this.  They do not currently have any plans for any reductions, but he also said those plans could change. 

The park also has been lacking permanent leadership for a few years now.  Superintendent Daniels is still Acting Superintendent.

Karen spoke up and said that Secretary Burgum is committed to horses remaining in the park and that nothing would be decided in a back room – the public will be notified and be involved in any decisions regarding their management.

We had a long discussion about GonaCon.  We are asking that the protocol being used at McCollough Peaks and The Pryor Mountains – managed by the BLM – be used at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  That protocol states that GonaCon will only be used on mares over the age of 15, who have contributed to the gene pool or who are non-responders to PZP. 

Bert’s argument is that they do not have the man-power to give PZP every year.  We noted that if you look at the reports the park released, it looks like A LOT of mares are getting GonaCon every year.  There are also mares that do not respond to GonaCon, that also need to be addressed especially when they will be charged with maintaining a genetically viable herd. 

We also asked if, since we know their resources are being stretched so thin, if this is an area where having volunteers could help?  That went into a whole different discussion.  Bert seemed opposed to working with volunteers to help administer fertility control. Karen asked Bert for additional information on what he thinks it will cost to have volunteers help.  We also plan to send additional information that shows the benefit of volunteers.

The collars….

This is something that is so simple that the park can do to let the public know that they are willing to work with the public.  They have refused any of our requests to remove the collars, including our meeting with NPS Deputy Director Frank Lands. 

Bert stated that the data is already showing that the horses are moving into new areas of the park that they have never been in before.  Bert believes that this is a result of how they are using the habitat and they are moving to other areas because the habitat they were using is not good anymore so they have to go find something else.  He believes this means that there might be too many horses in the park.  The short term draw backs are worth the knowledge they are gaining.  The benefits outweigh any of the drawbacks, he said. 

When I brought to his attention that the reason the horses are moving around to different areas has to do with the growing number of bachelors in the park that are challenging the band stallions, he said that was one hypothesis.  There is no evidence that my statement was correct.   

His response, and we let him know, is THE BIGGEST concern about these collars – that they will interpret the data from the collars and use it against the horses or the number of horses allowed in the park. 

He reiterated that they are not looking to gather data to blame the horses, they are looking for data to better manage the herd. He said it is important for them to understand how the horses are using the park because they graze very differently than elk and bison.  According to Bert, horses are more aggressive grazers than the elk and bison. 

We did, again, note that this is a place where volunteers can help them get data and also explain why horses are moving to other areas – i.e. bachelors, water etc. 

We left the conversation on the collars with Karen for a discussion with Secretary Burgum.

We also talked about the classification of the horses as “livestock”.  This, as you will remember, was the whole basis for why the horses were slated for removal.  Our lawyers have asked for YEARS how and when the classification changed from a historical or culturally significant herd.  Since we have not been given any documents, we have requested even through FOIA, it would seem that they do not exist.

Bert stated that the National Park Service as a whole classifies all horses on their lands as livestock.  I told him that when the management planning process started, I reached out to Assateague Island and asked if their horses were being removed, since no livestock was allowed on NPS lands.  They stated they do not classify horses as livestock they are a cultural resource. 

We feel it is important to have this classification changed BECAUSE it was the whole basis for the removal plans that started in 2022.

Bert believes it is all just semantics but remember, this was the WHOLE reason they gave for removing the horses. 

We also asked about FOIA requests from 2021 and 2024.  The one from 2021 is in appeal so they are looking into that.  The one from 2024 Bert let us know that we are 26 in queue out of 37.

Secretary Burgum has a very busy travel schedule, but Karen said that she has a list of questions from us for Secretary Burgum.  She promised to get back to me within 30 days. 

She did say that whatever the Secretary decides in his answers, we have to accept.  So, if he says the collars stay on, we have to accept that.

I agreed that we will. 

No matter what the final answers are, please take pride in knowing we recognized something concerning in this herd and we did not sit quietly.  We did all we could to do what is right FOR THE HORSES.

I used the last few moments of our meeting to let Karen know that as Burgum was nominated, wild horse advocates were hopeful because of his commitment to the TRNP wild horses and hopeful he would be an advocate for other herds.  I noted a few historic herds are set to be zeroed out and asked if his administration has looked at the roundup schedule and if it was possible to change the outcome for these herds?

Karen said that if I sent her additional information, she would look it over, but she could not guarantee that anything will change.

I also asked, in light of the Wall Street Journal article about Project 2025, if there is something she can say to speak to the concerns wild horse advocates have about the comments about being able to humanely euthanize wild horses. 

She said that would be illegal, unless Congress changed that. I said that is the concern.  She said that no one in their office, including her, has read Project 2025.

So, there you have it.  A pretty significant meeting today and more to come in our follow up.  We will absolutely share any responses we get from Secretary Burgum’s office.

We did express our gratitude to Secretary Burgum and his advocacy for the TRNP wild horses as governor.  We also reiterated that it was stated by many of our state legislators during the 2025 ND Legislative Session that they believed the TRNP wild horses will be ok now that we have such a strong ally at the Department of the Interior. 

Thank you for your support and have a great day!

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